I’ve really enjoyed watching the Chelsea Flower Show, well I always love it. But all good things must come to an end. You can view the highlight show here, it lasts about an hour.
Not long now until the Hampton Court Flower Show. Can’t wait.
Scottish words – boak
30 May 2010 09:20
Boak is a word which rhymes with poke and was used a few times in the Kate Atkinson book Not the End of the World, which I reviewed yesterday.
It is a verb meaning to be sick, as in vomit. So it isn’t very pleasant but is used often, for instance:-
I drank so much Irn Bru (insert your own choice of poison) that I boaked.
He scunnered me that much, I boaked all over him.
Wid that no’ gie you the dry boak.
The last phrase is generally used to signify that something absolutely disgusts you.
The dry boak is what happens when you just retch and nothing comes up because your stomach has been emptied.
So, boak is a useful but not exactly charming word.
I hope I haven’t given you the boak at the thought of it, or even the dry boak.
Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson
29 May 2010 01:12
This is another one which I bought at the last library book sale. I just picked it up because it was by Kate Atkinson and it wasn’t until later that I realised that it is actually a collection of short stories.
Well I quite enjoy reading short stories, so that wasn’t a problem. They are all sort of loosely linked to each other, with the same characters turning up from time to time. I really enjoyed them.
The book was published in 2002.
The Times review of it said: ‘One of the most fluent and inventive writers around … Atkinson’s prose is always rich, satisfying and self assured, and always surprising. She has such a remarkable way with words that you turn to them again and again.’
The Scotsman said: ‘One of the country’s most innovative, exciting and intelligent writers.’
Although I’ve read and enjoyed a few of her books now and some have been set in Scotland, I don’t think that it had dawned on me that she is actually categorized as a Scottish writer.
Although Atkinson was born in York, she now lives in Edinburgh.
This book has plenty of Scottish words in it. It seems that Kate went to Uni at Dundee and like many others before her, decided to stay on in Scotland. She seems to have revelled in Scottish culture because to me, this book reads as being by a completely Scottish writer.
I don’t know why, but I still get a bit of a thrill when I recognise a place in a book as somewhere that I have been. (Very sad and pathetic, I know.) So I really liked it when the characters in one of the stories take a trip to Deep Sea World at North Queensferry, just at the Forth Bridge. That was a favourite destination for our boys when they were wee.
I had a real feeling of deja vu at one point as the eleventh story starts with the mother taking her son to university for the first time. Although it isn’t named, it is obviously Stirling University, which is well known for the abundance of wildlife around the campus and I don’t mean the student variety. Ducks, geese, squirrels, rabbits and oyster catchers nesting and popping up all over the place.
Laura did her degree there and we lost count of the amount of times that we moved her in and out of the halls of residence. It made me feel quite nostalgic.
Anyway, Not the End of the World is definitely worth reading, even if you don’t frequent east and central Scotland.
Acers or Japanese maples
28 May 2010 01:00
This year in the garden, all the plants and flowers in my garden have been weeks later than usual in coming into flower or leaf, but at last my acers have made it and it was worth the wait.
I’m really lucky that I can grow acers as I know lots of people have difficulty with them. Their leaves are very delicate so they do tend to frazzle and burn in hot sunshine or wind.
We have a high wall at the bottom of our garden and I think that it protects them from the worst of the salty wind that you get around here. Very hot sunshine isn’t something that we are plagued by.
I have found that acers are very obliging too. I managed to move quite a large one a couple of years ago with no problem at all. I think as long as you keep them well watered after moving them they are quite happy.
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
27 May 2010 10:25
I don’t know why it has taken me so long to get around to reading this book. I have seen the film and I really enjoyed it. I read The Wyoming Stories and liked those so when I saw The Shipping News at the library book sale the other week, I just had to buy it.
Am I glad! I really loved this book. It’s one of those ones that you don’t really want to come to an end. As the book was first published in 1993, everybody else has probably read it by now, and will know the storyline from the film anyway. But if you’ve only seen the film then I advise you to read the book.
The only thing that I didn’t like about it was the amount of fish that people seemed to eat in Newfoundland. I suppose it is inevitable that the diet would be heavy on fish, but COD CHEEKS, really – it made me feel quite sick at the thought. I’m really not keen on fish. The other thing was that Quoyle chucked a hair brooch which had washed up on the beach back into the sea. He was revolted by it. I have a collection of hair brooches!
I’m wondering if anyone can answer this question for me.
Chapter 14 is called Wavey. It begins:
In Wyoming they name girls Skye. In Newfoundland it’s Wavey.
I understand the Wavey bit of it. But why are girls in Wyoming called Skye?
Is it because the skies in Wyoming are really BIG and they just stick an ‘e’ on the end for some reason – or what?
In Scotland Skye has become quite a popular name for a girl but that is because parents, for some reason have decided that it is a good idea to name their daughter after the Isle of Skye.
When I was young people called their dogs Skye, especially if it was a West Highland terrier (Westie) – or ankle biter as they are known in our family.
Anyway, that’s me going way off at a tangent again.
As I said, I loved the book and the film. It’s definitely one for re-reading. Although Kevin Spacey looks nothing like the description of Quoyle in the book, I think he was really good in the part.
The Shipping News won The Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
The Irish Times International Prize and
The National Book Award.
Chelsea Flower Show
26 May 2010 09:51
I know that it’s still May, but to me it’s definitely summer, what with the warm weather and the Chelsea Flower Show. Chelsea is my definition of the start of summer.
So I’ve been enjoying the BBC coverage in the afternoon and the evenings, and salivating over the beautiful plants. It’s pornography for gardeners really! If you haven’t been able to see it yet, why not watch it on the BBC iplayer.
I went on to the Chelsea Flower Show website and voted for my favourite gardens.
In the Show category I decided to vote for Kazahana which was designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara. I think that he was terribly disappointed that he only got a silver medal.
I don’t blame him. The judges were terribly harsh and mean on him. I loved the garden design. I’ve got a thing for Japanese maples. But the poor wee soul still managed a bow and thank you when he received his award. That’s class.
I found it more difficult to decide what to vote for in the Courtyard category, but in the end I went for Music on the Moors which was designed by Christina Williams.
It seems to have been a great year for the plants which is nothing short of miraculous considering the atrocious weather that we’ve had over this last year.
I always tell myself that you can see these better on T.V. because I know I would hate the crowds of people if I actualy went there. But it would be fab (absolutely) to be able to get to the plant sale at the end of the week. I love to see people struggling out with enormous delphiniums and such like. They’re always intending to take them home on the tube too.
I think 450 miles is just a wee bit too far to travel for it though.
Death at the President’s Lodging by Michael Innes
24 May 2010 01:29
I decided to choose a Michael Innes book to review as he was Scottish, as I am, so it’s a bit of flag waving.
I read everything that he wrote, including those under the name of J.I.M. Stewart, when I first started working in my local library – a long time ago. So I’ve started again with the very first book which he had published in 1936.
We are introduced to his detective, Inspector John Appleby of Scotland Yard, who arrives in a splendid yellow Bentley, he has been called in to investigate the death of Dr. Josiah Umpleby, President of St. Anthony’s College which is part of a fictitious university along the lines of Oxford and Cambridge and 20 miles or so from London.
Inspector Dodd of the local constabulary gives Appleby the details of the case, describing the crime scene as a ‘submarine’ within a submarine as the whole area had been sealed off with only a few college lecturers holding keys to the area.
The staff all surreptiously begin pointing fingers at each other and Appleby discovers that Dr. Umpleby enjoyed stirring up trouble amongst the university fellows and had the nasty habit of stealing his colleagues’ research and claiming the kudos for himself. So everybody is a suspect.
I wouldn’t say that this is light reading because, compared with most vintage crime you really have to concentrate on it and can’t skim. The storyline is very convoluted.
I don’t think that this book was my favourite of his, I did enjoy it but I think Michael Innes improved along the years. He did have a long writing career. There are no female characters at all, just passing references to a wife, cook or cleaner. But to be fair that is exactly how an elite university in 1936 would have been peopled.
As Michael Innes was a university lecturer, I’ve been wondering how his writing was received by his colleagues. I found it particularly amusing that he had more or less written himself in as a character. There is a lecturer who is a well known writer of detective fiction and just to stir things up even more Innes gave him the name of Gott and described him as being:
Quite beautiful. When he moved, he was graceful, when he spoke, he was charming; when he spoke for long, he was interesting. Above all he was disarming. “Plainly, -he seemed to say- “I am a creature whose life is more fortunate, more elevated, more effortlessly athletic and accomplished than yours, but observe! – you are not in the least irritated as a result; in fact, you are quite delighted.”
I can just imagine Innes’s real colleagues spluttering over that one, that is if they could bring themselves to read his book.
Although I enjoyed this book, my favourite crime writer is still Dorothy L. Sayers – or Agatha Christie for lighter reading. You don’t really get the vintage atmosphere somehow from this Innes book. It might sound daft but I think this is because of the lack of trains. A steam train immediately gives you all that 1930s ambience – the noise, smell and the style, even in third class. I’m not quite old enough to remember the age of steam but I’ve been on a few tourist steam railways.
Then there is the lack of female characters. No women means no elegance, no posh frocks, jewels, amber beads, silk shawls, harlequin costumes and the like. I love all that detail.
Apart from the yellow Bentley, which I could imagine, the only other vehicle which I remember being mentioned was a De Dion car belonging to some undergraduates. That meant nothing to me but presumably to contemporary readers it did.
Anyway, I’m glad that I re-read this book and I think that anyone who likes vintage crime would enjoy it.
I also read this book as part of the Flashback Challenge.
Munduff near Scotlandwell
23 May 2010 00:45
As you can see, we actually made it up to the top of Munduff despite the fact that it was a steaming hot day. The island in the middle of Loch Leven is where Mary Queen Of Scots was imprisoned. It looks tiny here but is actually quite big.
We nearly had the whole place to ourselves, there were just a few other people daft enough to tackle the climb, and of course there were the gliders.
The one on the left is a hang-glider. There were microlights too.
At one point I thought we wouldn’t make it, but with plenty of rests (collapses) along the way we managed it, with a lot of peching and panting. It took us about an hour and a half.
On one of our stops we calculated that it must have been 15 years since we walked these hills. That time we went up the Bishop Hill.
Unfortunately it was a bit too bright and some of the photographs came out a bit colour drained, I tried to darken them a wee bit.
At the top it was very windy but that was just what we needed to cool us down. The picture doesn’t give the true impression of how high up we were.
So if you find yourself near Scotlandwell or Kinnesswood in Perth and Kinross and you fancy a good hill walk, park your car at the side of the church and cross the road. Then walk down the hill a wee bit and there is a path with some steps leading up to Munduff and Bishop Hill.
I think that children from about the age of 12 should be able to tackle this walk. Get them away from the T.V. and computer and although they will probably moan all the way, they’ll boast about it to their friends.
It’s Too Hot
22 May 2010 09:52
It’s official. I’m just never happy. After moaning and chittering all through that seemingly never ending winter, I’m complaining about the heat now.
Today it was 65 Fahrenheit in our house, that’s 18.3 Celsius, downstairs, which was fine really. Upstairs, even with all the windows open it was 75 F, that’s 23.9 Celsius. I nearly melted, it really saps your energy, and I’ve got a headache from the sun – must remember to wear a hat.
It’s been four years since we’ve had a day this hot here and apparently it’s going to be even hotter tomorrow. We had hoped to get up a hill this weekend but I don’t know now.
I suppose it would be cooler higher up and there should be a nice breeze. On the other hand, the hill climb might be purgatory.
The photographs would be good though.
Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray
21 May 2010 09:28
Like many Victorian novels Vanity Fair was first issued in monthly
parts, from January 1847 to July 1848. It was also issued in book form in 1848 but the edition which I read was one that I bought from the local second-hand book shop and is the revised 1864 edition with a whopping 878 pages.
Vanity Fair is a social satire which Thackeray wrote in the middle of his writing career. The action begins in London with Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp about to leave Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for young girls, the wealthy Amelia for a life of comfort and the penniless Rebecca as a governess.
Rebecca has no intention of staying poor and immediately ‘sets her cap’ at Jos Sedley, Amelia’s brother. George Osborne, Amelia’s fiance, can’t bear the thought of being related by marriage to someone like Rebecca and scuppers her plans.
Undaunted, Beccy secretly marries her employer’s son Rawdon Crawley whilst Amelia marries George Osborne, the upshot of which is that both young men are disinherited by their fathers.
Thackeray’s writing is much more comical than I had expected it to be :
In a word George had thrown the great cast. He was going to be married. Hence his pallor and nervousness – his sleepless night and agitation in the morning. I have heard people who have gone through the same thing own to the same emotion. After three or four ceremonies you get accustomed to it, no doubt; but the first dip, everybody allows, is awful.
Well, it is funny until you remember that some men in particular could easily have got through three or four wives with so many women dying in childbirth.
As George and Rawdon are in the army they take part in the Battle of Waterloo, 1815.
Thackeray wasn’t born until 1811, he must have done a good deal of talking to men who were actually at the battle. I think that anyone studying this period would benefit from reading the book, even if they can only manage the run up to the battle and the aftermath.
At school I studied Waterloo to the Great Exhibition, 1815 – 1851, a very busy time in British history and I wish I had read the book as a schoolgirl.
As human nature never seems to change the characters are all recognizable and still with us today. Beccy and her husband Rawdon sail through life happy to live at other people’s expense with no thought to the harm which they inflict on others. Chapter 36 is entitled -How to Live Well on Nothing a Year-
As always seems to happen in books published first in periodical form, the story does drag at times as the author pads out the story at whatever the payment per word was in those days. But I thoroughly enjoyed the book even although the characters are nearly all very flawed human beings. I think that they all have their moments when they know how ghastly their behaviour has been.
I suppose ‘society’ has always been full of social climbers but I couldn’t help thinking that Beccy Sharp reminded me of Emma, Lady Hamilton, who behaved in very much the same way.
Although according to a very interesting book (if you are into that era) which I read a few years ago, Nelson’s Women by the historian Tom Pocock, Emma Hamilton had almost certainly been a very lowly prostitute before her climb up into high society and many people at the time couldn’t understand Nelson’s fascination with her.
I digress. Don’t be put off by the 878 pages of Vanity Fair. It’s definitely worth ploughing through.